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Entering the council chambers of Liverpool Town Hall during a protest against his council's cuts programme, Labour Council Leader Joe Anderson claimed: "I got kicked in my ankles and punched in the side." This was reported unquestioningly by the Liverpool Echo and by Radio City 96.7.

The following video - taken by a member of Liverpool Solidarity Federation - shows him entering the town hall, surrounded by police officers and members of the City Watch. Neither they nor Anderson react at any point as if he is physically attacked. He enters the building unscathed.

On Saturday 4th June, almost 150 people took part in the Liverpool People's Assembly Against The Cuts. Members of Liverpool Solidarity Federation were amongst them, as the conference discussed resisting cuts in the public sector, to the NHS, and in communities.

Contrary to the name, the event was quite traditional in its set-up. Each of the three sessions was a panel debate, with the chair introducing four speakers who opened and closed the sections, with other contributions often also taking the form of prepared speeches. Despite this limitation, there were still many good points made. Numerous times, the TUC and trade union leadership came in for substantive criticism, and a SolFed comrade drew this together to make the point that we need to act for ourselves and build our own confidence rather than looking to leaders.

This Saturday, Liverpool Trades Council have called for a People’s Assembly Against the Cuts. This all-day event is being organised as a forum for discussion and planning, with the possible aim of setting up an all-Liverpool anti-cuts campaign.

Liverpool Solidarity Federation believes that it is important working class people and communities organise themselves against attacks by the ruling class. That is why we welcome the idea of an all-Liverpool anti-cuts campaign, uniting communities, workplaces, the employed and unemployed, students and pensioners to challenge the most savage attacks our class has ever faced.

According to a headline in the Chronicle and Echo, "THE LARGEST cuts faced by Northamptonshire County Council in years have been approved by the Conservative leaders of the authority, despite the politicians admitting it was the last thing they wanted to do."

The last thing they wanted to do?

I can think of at least one option they could have taken. Any councillor whose conscience was against the cuts could have taken the decision to resign their position. But they didn't.

One of the defining tenets setting libertarian socialism apart from authoritarian political traditions of both left and right, is an unshirking commitment to the principles of direct democracy. This is the means advocated by anarchists for exercising and enabling genuinely participative decision making in all domains of human life. Rejecting hierarchical organisation, we argue that both parliamentary “democracy” and totalitarianism have the same intensions – to maintain the distinction between leaders and led, rulers and ruled. Both, in the final analysis, are designed to ensure our passive acceptance of a system that oppresses us.